1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of anchoring devices for securing structural building members together, and more specifically to an anchoring device for securing the bottom member of a truss to the top of a wall, a first embodiment serving to secure the bottom truss member to a concrete wall top edge, including an elongate first plate, positioned in a horizontal plane for purposes of discussion, and having a solid middle section and two end sections, each end section being divided by two parallel, longitudinal cuts into three parallel and adjacent strip portions, the two outer strip portions of each end section extending outward from the middle section to a certain distance to form level segments each including a nut resting on its side and welded to its upper surface, and then bending perpendicularly downward, the downward segments of the outer strip portions having anchoring barbs, for insertion into uncured cement at the top edge of a wall to anchor the first plate to the wall, the middle strip portion at each end section being bent upward adjacent to the middle section and perpendicular to the middle section for receiving between the middle strip portions the bottom truss member, and including a separate, second plate having parallel slots for perpendicularly receiving the remote ends of the two middle strip portions, and corner ports for perpendicularly receiving bolts to fasten to the welded nuts so that the second plate is secured to the first plate and against the bottom truss member; and to a second embodiment for securing the bottom truss member to a plank standing on a side edge along the top of a wall, the outer strip portions of which exclude the downward segments of the first embodiment and instead have parallel plate sections extending perpendicularly and downward from the outer edges of the outer strip portions for receiving between them the wall plank, and nails driven through holes in the plate sections and into the wall plank.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There have long been anchoring devices for securing beams to concrete structural members, and alternatively to perpendicular beams. The concrete anchors have often been large bolts, each bent at a right angle and placed in cement prior to curing. These bolts are typically heavy and expensive, concentrate the anchoring load on a single line, and fail to provide a secure and convenient coupling structure for attachment to a beam. The perpendicular beam anchors are typically straps and truss plates with ends bent a quarter turn relative to each other around their longitudinal axes, to present properly oriented faces for nailing onto perpendicular beams. A problem with these bent straps and truss plates is that they only attach to one face of each beam, so that two of them must be used to achieve balanced and secure anchoring. The additional number of skilled man hours necessary to fasten two separate anchors to each beam makes this option expensive. Another problem with the straps in particular is that they can pivot on their fasteners and permit a dangerous range of play between the beams.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide an anchoring device for joining beams to concrete structural members, which each fasten to two faces of the beam for secure and economical connection.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide an anchoring device for joining two perpendicular beams together, which fastens to two faces of each beam for secure and economical connection.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such an anchoring device which includes a coupling structure for easy and fast attachment to beams.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide such an anchoring device of the first type which has multiple, spaced apart concrete anchoring elements for a more secure, distributed load.
It is finally an object of the present invention to provide such an anchoring device which is inexpensive to manufacture.